Green Leaf Report

Jon Mooallem writes an excellent article about the politics of deposit laws, returnable bottles and the loophole of water bottles.  Deposit laws - charging and then refunding a nickel or dime for returned soda and beer bottles - are a good start to make the recycling of our trash more economic.  Grocers, bottling companies and the drink manufacturers should all be responsible for the eventual trash they create.  I can’t even visually imagine the size of America’s two million tons of water bottle trash generated every year.  That’s mind boggling. Of course, we shouldn’t marginalize one industry; semiconductor manufacturers should also be responsible for their eventual trash- we see this starting to happen through Europe’s RoHS regulations.  The automotive industry should also be responsible for their eventual trash- any item with built in obsolescence should have an eventual plan for disposal, also, or it should not be sold. It is never correct to require our governments (and thus our tax dollars) to clean up behind our businesses, and artificially inflate profits at the detriment to our communities, and other potential uses for those tax dollars (schools, perhaps?).